1980 Stanley Cup Finals

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The 1980 Stanley Cup Final was contested by the New York Islanders in their first-ever Finals appearance and the Philadelphia Flyers, in their fourth Finals appearance, first since 1976. The Islanders would win the best-of-seven series four games to two, to win their first Stanley Cup and the second for a post-1967 expansion team.

Denis Potvin would score the first power-play overtime goal in Stanley Cup history in game one. Bob Nystrom would score the Cup winner in overtime in Game 6, his fourth career overtime goal. Ken Morrow joined the team after winning the Olympic gold medal and added the Stanley Cup to cap a remarkable season.

Game 6 was televised in the United States by the CBS network, as a special edition of its CBS Sports Spectacular anthology series. This would be the last NHL game to air on U.S. network television until 1990. As of 2009, it is also the last Stanley Cup Final game to be played in the afternoon (earlier than 5:00 local time).

The series-winning overtime goal in Game 6 was scored by Bobby Nystrom and assisted by fellow third liners John Tonelli and Lorne Henning. Nystrom's redirection of Tonelli's cross ice pass from just above the Flyers left side face-off circle, floated up and over Goalie Pete Peeters' blocker before the Philadelphia keeper could slide over to stop the puck. Henning's 'thread the needle' pass is generally a forgotten part, but was the key component, of the goal.

The end result of the series was marred by controversy, as the Islanders were offside on the play that resulted in their second goal of game 6, but the call was not made. Linesman Leon Stickle admitted after the game that he had blown the call.[1]

Stanley Cup engraving

†Alex McKendry played two regular season and six playoff games, but did not play in the finals. †Jean Potvin played 32 regular season games, but did not play in the playoffs. Both names were engraved on the Stanley Cup, even though they did not officially qualify.

Ken Morrow became the first player to win the Olympic Gold (with Team United States), and Stanley Cup (with New York Islanders) in the same year.

^-Steve Corais (Director of Public Relations) was included on the team, but his name was left off the Stanley Cup.